


blood of the dragon

by closingdoors



Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Awesome Pepper Potts, Canon Compliant, Character Study, F/M, Non-Linear Narrative, Pre-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-22
Updated: 2018-08-22
Packaged: 2019-06-30 20:30:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15759129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/closingdoors/pseuds/closingdoors
Summary: A few outsiders' observations on Pepper Potts.





	blood of the dragon

**Author's Note:**

> I'm doped up on cold medicine, so my editing on this isn't the best (I wrote it in one long stretch), so I apologise in advance for any typos, grammar mistakes, etc.

**“I am the blood of the dragon. I must be strong. I must have fire in my eyes when I face them, not tears.”**  
**\- A Storm Of Swords, George R. R. Martin**

 

* * *

 

 

Happy Hogan has been in love with Pepper Potts for as long as he can remember.

Iron-willed, sharp-tongued, and beautiful. She's everything he looks for in a woman. He tried asking her out, a few times, when Tony first hired Pepper. She'd smiled primly every time and found a new way to let him down - gently - and he wasn't surprised, not really. Pepper Potts wasn't the kind of woman to fall for drivers; she fell for the men they drove.

She becomes a friend, in a distant sort of way, shortly after she makes CEO. They spend more time together than before, whether he's her driver or her head of security, and she's amiable enough towards him. One thing he notes, however, is the absence of friendships Pepper  _does_ have. She reminds him of his boss - or, well, ex-boss. She's brilliant, beautiful; a firecracker. It must be hard for people to approach her when she has her Forbes magazine cover sitting in her reception. But she's a genius in a different way to Tony. A corporate genius. Cutthroat when she needs to be. She belongs to a world that depends on social connections for leverage, not for tangibility.

Sometimes he wonders if that's lonely. Then he feels like an idiot for thinking Pepper Potts could possibly ever be  _lonely._

(Still, he wonders if it's true.)

 

* * *

 

 

Peggy Carter meets Pepper Potts twice before the dementia sets in.

The first time she meets her, it's brief. Tony arrives late to a meeting, as he always does. This time, however, instead of strolling in he is  _pushed_ in. The man actually stumbles. Behind him, a hurricane of a woman blows into the room.

Oddly, the first thing she notices about her is how perfectly manicured her nails are, painted only with a transparent sheen. 

Tony spends the meeting whispering things in the woman's ear, which is a bloody nuisance, but his assistant elbows him every time and forces him to pay attention. It's inappropriate. She plans to tell Tony as such, but after the meeting is finished and Pepper has written up her minutes, she beelines straight for Peggy to introduce herself. They talk about Peggy's experience in the war, Pepper praising her for paving the way for young women everywhere, while Tony sulks somewhere behind her, attention-deprived.

The second time Peggy meets Pepper, it's on the ten year anniversary of Howard and Maria's death. Peggy brings flowers to the house - carnations, the kind Howard would bring her on the anniversary of Steve's death - and lets herself in without second thought. She knows Tony will either withdraw or make a spectacle on this date. Last year, he made headlines by partying with ten hookers, the very picture of disgrace. Sourly, she thinks Howard would be proud.

When Peggy reaches upstairs, she finds someone in Tony's room she never thought she'd encounter there: Pepper Potts.

It isn't sexual, thankfully, though she feels rather like she's walked in on an intimate moment. Tony's covered in a sheen of sweat. A hangover, she deduces. Pepper lifts the sheets up and over his body and then strokes a hand through his hair, pushing it away from his forehead, a tender look in her eyes. 

When Pepper spots Peggy standing in the doorway, her professional air has reappeared. She closes the bedroom door and informs Peggy that Tony isn't taking visitors. She accepts the flowers on his behalf, setting them in a beautiful vase Peggy had no idea he even owned, and makes Peggy a mug of tea the  _correct_ way. There's a fluidity to her movements, as mundane as they are, a step-by-step process she follows. For a moment, Peggy is almost overcome with the need to tell Pepper to stay away from her godson. That he will only hold her back. 

Instead, she accepts the tea and makes small talk about SI's stocks. Pepper is far more business-sharp than anyone gives her credit for, perhaps even Tony, and Peggy wonders when Pepper plans on breaking Tony's heart to leave him for bigger and better things.

 

* * *

 

 

Pepper Potts doesn't fool him. She may have an icy smile when he gets too close, but she's nothing more than a pretty woman in a skirt for Tony to look at. 

Obadiah Stane knows, like most women, that's her weakness. Tony. He expects tears when Tony goes 'missing'. There's nothing but carefully detached acceptance. He tries to encourage her to become his assistant - he could certainly show her a better time than Tony ever would - but she doesn't accept, and then Tony is home, and this time there are tears.

It's why, when he finds himself standing over the large arc reactor, he doesn't fear for his life. If Pepper slams that override button, it's a death sentence for Tony too. She's too feeble and love-struck to do it. 

And yet -

He finds his last thought is that he was  _wrong._

 

* * *

 

 

Phil Coulson understands masks. He's masked beneath so many layers himself that he's not sure where he begins and the act ends. He notices Pepper Potts' immediately.

She wears one of careful detachment. She deflects and rearranges his appointment so many times he's beginning to think he'll lose this game they're playing. She'd be a worthy victor, no doubt. He's not exactly sure  _why,_ unless she's protecting her boss. Pepper Potts doesn't strike him as the kind of person to moon over Tony Stark, however. 

When he supplies Mr Stark with his speech, he witnesses the playful flirtation between the pair. This, too, is a mask. 

He visits Pepper when she first makes CEO for Stark Industries to congratulate her. She's gracious, accepts his flowers, but analytical. He can see it in her eyes. He doesn't necessarily blame her - the press has been on her case like vultures. He watches her take it in her stride, however, and thinks sometimes she reminds him a little of May. It's probably why he finds himself befriending her, though the two of them are both acutely aware of the barriers they place between them lest it becomes too personal.

It's why he finds it a marvel, really, when he visits Tony Stark in his tower and finds Pepper lounging in her shorts, a glass of champagne in hand. She still maintains control of the conversation, always determined to keep things on her terms, yet the flirtation between her and Mr Stark this time isn't playful. This, he realises, is Pepper Potts without a mask.

 

* * *

 

 

///////83657/////// LOG: 03-01-08: INTERIOR /////// 

::PREMISES ENTERED BY POTTS, VIRGINIA, 1800.

::WORKSHOP ENTERED BY POTTS, VIRGINIA, 1802.

///////83657/////// LOG: 03-04-08: INTERIOR ///////

::WORKSHOP EXITED BY POTTS, VIRGINIA, 0020.

::PREMISES EXITED BY POTTS, VIRGINIA, 0022.

///////83658/////// LOG: 03-05-08: INTERIOR ///////

::PREMISES ENTERED BY STANE, OBADIAH, 1002.

::ACCESS TO WORKSHOP DENIED TO STANE, OBADIAH, 1010.

::ACCESS TO WORKSHOP DENIED TO STANE, OBADIAH, 1013.

::MANUAL OVERRIDE STANE, OBADIAH, REJECTED, 1016.

::ACCESS TO WORKSHOP DENIED TO STANE, OBADIAH, 1019.

::ACCESS TO WORKSHOP DENIED TO STANE, OBADIAH, 1023.

::PREMISES EXITED BY STANE, OBADIAH, 1033.

///////83659/////// LOG: 03-07-08: INTERIOR ///////

::PREMISES ENTERED BY POTTS, VIRGINIA, 0900.

::WORKSHOP ENTERED BY POTTS, VIRGINIA, 0902.

::VISIBLE DISTRESS RECORDED OF POTTS, VIRGINIA, 0907.

::PREMISES EXITED BY POTTS, VIRGINIA, 0910.

 

* * *

 

 

Rhodey first hears about the engagement on the news. It's both a surprise and a  _finally_ kind of moment. 

He meets up with Tony and Pepper for lunch two days after. They don't behave differently around each other. They've never been mushy, so he's never felt like a third-wheel, except for when Pepper kicks Tony's ass for something he's done wrong (which is pretty frequent, his best friend is one giant mistake walking around in a suit of armour).

When Tony leaves to head to the bathroom, Rhodey watches as Pepper worries the ring on her finger with her thumb. It's impressive, he'll give Tony that. The man has taste. Somehow, he doesn't think it's taste that's worrying Pepper.

Yet when he tries to ask, her cool, guarded expression flips down. Sometimes, he thinks Pepper wouldn't be half bad working in the military, her poker face could fool him if he hadn't known her for years, though he guesses the corporate world is its own kind of minefield. He tries to scratch the surface -  _aren't you happy? -_ but she dismisses him with an arched eyebrow and an eye-roll. Tony returns, and she kisses him firmly on the lips, as though to prove a point. Tony doesn't seem to mind.

He wonders if that's healthy. That Pepper doesn't talk to people - or, perhaps, that she only talks to Tony, when half the time the man himself is the problem. Pepper Potts is unlike any other woman he's ever met, so he won't pretend to understand the way she works.

Though, when aliens drop from the sky again and Tony leaves on a spacecraft with no return ticket, he thinks he understands a fraction.

 

* * *

 

 

Bruce Banner meets Pepper Potts after not realising she exists. He's sitting in the lab with Tony, the pair of them working in silence, when she steps off of the elevator. Bruce glances at Tony, waiting for an explanation, but in usual Tony Stark fashion there is none. She sets three different contracts on his desk, pushing aside the designs he'd been working on nonchalantly, and hands him a pen. Which, oddly, he takes. He's not known Tony Stark for long - he's only been living in the Avengers tower for a week - but he already knows that he doesn't like to be handed things. 

Tony signs them swiftly - it's the first time he's ever seen him actively work with someone, instead of struggling against them - and the redhead leaves. Bruce asks who she is. Tony throws his head back and laughs. 

Later, Bruce googles her, and discovers she's the CEO of SI. He doesn't know why this surprises him so much.

What surprises him more is when, one day, he steps off of the elevator and onto the Avengers common room floor. And there's Pepper Potts, sprawled over a dozen sets of what he assumes to be important paperwork, fast asleep on the counter. He's stumped for what to do for one moment, and then shakes her awake. A sheet of paper sticks to her cheek when she sits up, disorientated, and oddly, she blushes. He makes her coffee while she explains how hectic her job has been since the Chitauri attacked. People are depending on SI for direction more than ever, she informs him, especially since their poster boy is Iron Man.

He finds respect growing for the woman as she speaks. While she sips at her coffee and talks, she continues her work, crossing out sentences and making notes in the margins and highlighting other sections. In the brief lapses of their conversation, she makes phone calls, reciting clauses that are, in her words,  _completely unacceptable._ She is the first person apart from Tony who is confident being alone in a room with him.

She doesn't ask about The Other Guy once.

Two hours into their conversation, Tony himself appears. He calls Pepper  _honey_ and Bruce chokes on the fresh coffee he's brewed. Neither of them pay attention. Tony presses a kiss against her temple and Pepper bats him away, wrinkling her nose fondly, until her blackberry lights up again and she picks up to win another argument. Tony watches her proudly.

Bruce hadn't made the connection before. Tony didn't seem - well, he doesn't know Pepper, but Tony's a mess. He can't picture them together, even though they're stood right in front of him.

Then again, maybe that's what Pepper Potts likes. Organising chaos.

 

* * *

 

 

The first news coverage Steve watches after he leaves Stark in Siberia features Pepper Potts.

It isn't planned. He's recuperating in Wakanda, channel surfing, and stops when he spots a familiar head of red hair. He's always been fond of Pepper, she's a pleasant woman and way too out of Stark's league.

She looks oddly like the president, he thinks. Assistants by her side, security behind her blank-faced but eyes like hawks behind their sunglasses. She follows the speech she's been given without looking down once, informing the public that Stark is in a stable condition, that the rumours of his injuries had been exaggerated. She lies easily. 

At the end of the speech, Pepper is hounded by the reporters. She refuses to take any questions. However she pauses at the edge of the frame when a reporter asks about her relationship status with Tony.  _I'm not able to comment on that at the moment,_ she says, and leaves.

Steve feels a fleeting sense of guilt towards Pepper. He doesn't think she'd want it.

 

* * *

 

 

Sometimes, it's hard to feel like he's really tapped in to Pepper.

Sure, they share a bed, and she wears his ring, but sometimes Tony can  _hear_ the things she's holding back from him hanging in the air between them. It'd been that way after he'd had his surgery, when his chest was nothing but oozing bandages and skin grafts and warped scars. He'd worked with Helen Cho shortly after the surgery to mitigate the damage and ugly appearance, yet whenever Pepper's hands passed over that spot, there'd be a hazy, unsure look in her eye. It'd made bile pit at the bottom of his stomach.

There's things he understands about her, things he knows more than most. He knows the soap she uses and that she avoids buying shampoo which contain sulfates and that she has a collection of freckles shaped oddly like Ohio on her lower back. He knows that she had a brother she and her family never talk about and that Halloween is her favourite holiday. He knows that she loves him.

Still, it feels like he's constantly digging, and often comes up empty. There's an aura around her, a self-assertion, that he can't crack. He watches the way detachment glazes over her when he talks about a suit, the way she worries the engagement ring on her finger, the utter lack of expression when he wakes up after Siberia in a hospital room with her by his side. A lot of the time, he wonders how many of these things she does out of the way she's built, and what are habits she's developed from being associated with him.

Pepper tells him things he wants to hear. Not to placate him, but because she loves him. Sometimes, she tells him things he doesn't want to hear at all, but it never feels like the entire truth.

He knows that he doesn't deserve her. He loves her anyway.

He waits impatiently for the day that the curse in his head, the terror of New York, is lifted. He thinks then, maybe, they'll be in a bubble together, instead of separately.

 

* * *

 

 

There are many things Pepper knows people assume about her. They range from her being emotional to cold; businesslike to unprofessional; lover to fighter. 

Sometimes, she isn't entirely sure what the truth really is. She knows that she loves Tony, yet she often keeps him at arm's length, knowing he's going to leave her widowed one day. She's pragmatic; it's how she works. 

Maybe she's all of the things people assume about her.

After the attack on New York, she misses Phil Coulson. She grieves him but she doesn't let it show. Tony is eagle-eyed around her enough already, blaming himself, carrying his grief heavy and loud. She's not sure how much of it she keeps to herself to spare hurting his feelings or out of pure selfishness. So that she can have something that is hers, that isn't interwoven with him, like so much of her life has since the day he hired her.

She tells Tony about her brother without thinking. Just - drops him into conversation, like it's easy. Tony is eager for more information, but talking about it makes her throat close up, and she doesn't feel like she owes it to Tony to explain. Her brother Jackson died when she was ten and he was eight. Leukaemia. It left her parents with medical bills that weren't paid off until Pepper received her first paycheck as Tony's assistant. When Tony mentions children, she can't explain why she puts it off without mentioning Jackson, so she blames the suit of armour he still wears instead. It's a half-truth.

She is patient and loving. Sometimes a little _too_ much. These are things she knows to be true about herself. They're also her weak points, so she covers them by keeping her heart guarded, even from Tony. She fears exploitation, manipulation, two things the world is best at. 

The night before Tony gets on the ship, before she begs him to come back, they're soft and slow with each other in bed. He leaves her toes buzzing sometimes, that man. Sex had never really been anything  _but_ that before she'd first slept with Tony. It had been a way to work off stress after a long day of work. She'd been a no-strings-attached kind of girl, not that she'd let Tony know that. However, when the afterglow shines, when there are no words, when he links his fingers with hers and the sweat on her skin begins to cool, she thinks it's the most vulnerable she's ever been.

Pepper lets people talk. Because the way Tony looks at her sometimes - like he can't believe she's here with him, like she's a goddess. She thinks that's understanding enough.


End file.
